leneș

Forms

leneș m or n (feminine singular leneșă, masculine plural leneși, feminine/neuter plural leneșe)^[1] Old texts spell it leaneș: a text of 1678 warns about „sluga cea leaneșe” “the lazy servant”.^[2] The Bible of 1688 has the vocative leaneșule: „Pasă cătră furnică, o leaneșule” “Go to the ant, thou sluggard” (Proverbs 6:6).^[3]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian lene + -eș.^{[2][4][5][3][1]} Ciorănescu lists it among the derivatives of lene “laziness”.^[6] The noun lene is from Old Church Slavonic лѣнь (lěnĭ), from Proto-Slavic *lěnь.^[6][1]

The zoological sense “sloth” is a calque on French paresseux and German Faultier, both of which name the animal after its slowness.^[4][2][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is a Gospel text of 1551–1553, at Matthew 25:26, the parable in which the master calls his servant wicked and lazy.^[3] MDA2 dates the word from Coresi's Carte de învățătură of 1581.^[5] From the start it describes a person who avoids work.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

The adjective is first said of people, often of a servant or a pupil who will not work: Antim writes of punishing someone „ca o slugă leneșă” “like a lazy servant”.^[2] Used as a noun it means a lazy person, and in the regions also an idler or a chatterbox.^[5][3]

By extension it was applied to gestures, movements and things that move slowly and without energy: clouds, mists, a fire burning low.^[7][4] Scriban and Șăineanu also record a figurative inteligență leneșă “a sluggish mind”.^[8][9] The zoological sense, the South American sloth, follows the French and German names of the animal.^[2][4] In some regions albină leneșă “lazy bee” is the drone.^[5]

Timeline

• 1551–1553 – a Gospel text, at Matthew 25:26, the first record.^[3]
• 1581 – in Coresi's Carte de învățătură.^[5]
• 1678 – sluga cea leaneșe “the lazy servant”.^[2]
• 1688 – leaneșule “thou sluggard” in the Bucharest Bible.^[3]
• 1825 – lenešu in the Lexicon de la Buda, glossed with Latin piger, segnis and German träg, faul.^[10]
• 1870 – Costinescu glosses it with French paresseux and indolent.^[11]

Meanings

Adjective

1. lazy, idle: lacking the wish or will to work or to be active.^[4][5][1]
2. Showing laziness: un zâmbet leneș “a lazy smile”.^[4][7]
3. Slow, unhurried, moving gently: pașii leneși ai bătrânului “the old man's slow steps”.^[4][5]

Noun

1. A lazy person, a sluggard; feminine leneșă.^[4][5][1]
2. (zoology) A sloth, a South American mammal that hangs from branches and moves very slowly; in the plural, the family of sloths (Bradypodidae).^[4][5]

Related words

• lene
• lenos
• alene
• lenevi
• trândav

Usage notes

Regional senses include an idler and a chatterbox, and albină leneșă for the drone bee.^[5] A proverb of the CADE says that the lazy man ends up running about the most: leneșul mai mult aleargă.^[12]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. leneș
3. ^ a b c d e f g Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. leneș
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 585
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1346
6. ^ a b Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001), p. s.v. lene
7. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 746
8. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 739
9. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 361
10. ^ Lesicon românescu-latinescu-ungurescu-nemțescu quare de mai mulți autori, în cursul a trideci și mai multor ani s-au lucrat (1825), Buda: Typographia Universității (the Lexicon of Buda, ed. Petru Maior et al.), p. 350
11. ^ Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 29
12. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. leneș